21 December 2015 – The Philippine Permanent Mission to the United Nations Office in Geneva intensified its engagements to promote women’s rights.
Philippine Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office in Geneva, Ambassador Cecilia B. Rebong, led the Philippine Mission’s active participation in this year’s “white ribbon campaign” - the 18-day campaign to promote awareness on violence against women.
The object of this year’s white ribbon campaign is to seek out as many male diplomats and convince them to wear a white ribbon for 18 days, from November 24 to December 10, to symbolize their support for the campaign against violence against women.
Labor Attache Ma. Celeste Valderrama, who gave the lecture on the ILO Convention 189: Domestic Workers Convention, underscored the Philippines’ commitment to the Convention as a means of assisting its countless nationals all over the world who benefit from its protection in terms of employment conditions, standards of work and rights.
Ambassador Rebong, a staunch advocate of education as a means of advancing skills and capacity, in her remarks pointed out that “only in knowledge and understanding of the issue of gender and all its components and aspects can we truly eliminate the gender barrier and ‘achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls”.
Ambassador Rebong is one of International Gender Champions in Geneva. Gender Champions are ambassadors and heads of UN agencies and international organizations actively pursuing gender equity and women’s rigths.
On a related matter, the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva conducted a two-day course on “The International Framework of Women’s Human Rights” from December 07 to 08. The Philippine Mission representatives, Minister Fos and Attaché Marivil Valles, participated in the said seminar.
This unique course examines the international human rights law framework that guarantees the rights of women and critically evaluates its potential to challenge core obstacles undermining the effective protection of women’s rights in the world today.
The seminar covered discussions on some of the human rights treaty bodies, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the International Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and other cases of gender-based violence against women.
The meeting noted that CEDAW (the Women’s Convention), which was adopted in 1979 by the UN General Assembly, is widely referred to as an international bill of rights for women. The Women’s Convention interprets the human rights framework for women effectively, yet entrenched discrimination against them persists worldwide, with women suffering human rights violations on the grounds of their gender on a daily basis.
In the course of the training, the seminar also conducted group discussions on related topics including the economic and social rights of women such as access to education and health; violence against women including rape, sexual violence and intimate partner violence; and protection of displaced women during immigration and anti-trafficking.
The group activities allowed for interactive dialogue among members from different Permanent Missions and other international organizations, which facilitated the discussions. END